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What Is Richlite?


Zentar

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Richlite

 

 

Richlite is a phenolic resin cellulose compound material it is a dense material made from partially recycled paper and phenolic resin. The paper is soaked in phenolic resin, then molded and baked into net shape in a heated form or press

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So are you asking us or telling us?

 

:)

 

Yes as it says a man made composite so not proper wood... HOWEVER a lot of people on here like them...

 

I tried one ages ago when they first started using them (after the famous government raids) and I had black powder rubbing off on my fingers which put me off them forever.. But the guys that like them on here say that doesn't happen on their boards?

 

The thing is.. One day.. real wood will be at such a premium that we will HAVE to use substitutes.. Ebony will probably be extinct sooner or later (probably sooner) and possibly the other sources too in several years (rosewood and maple).

 

So in that way its a good thing.. But to me nothing is nicer than an ebony or rosewood board.

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The thing is.. One day.. real wood will be at such a premium that we will HAVE to use substitutes.. Ebony will probably be extinct sooner or later (probably sooner) and possibly the other sources too in several years (rosewood and maple).

 

 

I have to agree with you Rabs..

 

and now my reasons for not selling any guitars that I've purchased since the mid 90s makes perfect sense.

 

 

[thumbup]

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Ebony is in zero danger of going extinct. Taylor guitars has a video interview on their website explaining Ebony. They own quite a bit of Ebony right now in forests they run in Africa. The problem is finding the select grain Ebony trees that are black. There is an almost unlimited supply of Ebony that has brown grain mixed in. Taylor has debated making fretboards that use multicolored grained Ebony but as of yet I haven't seen a Taylor with anything but all black grain.

 

There are many alternative woods to Ebony but Gibson has leaned towards Richlite.

 

I was curious of what players in here thought of Richlite and also curious if players even knew what Richlite really is made of. "Richlite" is a fancy marketing name given to a material that is basically made up of glue and recycled paper.

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Ebony is in zero danger of going extinct. Taylor guitars has a video interview on their website explaining Ebony. They own quite a bit of Ebony right now in forests they run in Africa. The problem is finding the select grain Ebony trees that are black. There is an almost unlimited supply of Ebony that has brown grain mixed in. Taylor has debated making fretboards that use multicolored grained Ebony but as of yet I haven't seen a Taylor with anything but all black grain.

 

There are many alternative woods to Ebony but Gibson has leaned towards Richlite.

 

I was curious of what players in here thought of Richlite and also curious if players even knew what Richlite really is made of. "Richlite" is a fancy marketing name given to a material that is basically made up of glue and recycled paper.

Yes I was talking about the pure black ebony... And was talking about what most of us think of as traditional woods... And that's why I think Gibson went for Richlite as it does have an ebony look so thus keeps the traditional look of the guitars that we are used to..

 

Im currently looking at a Bubinga or Zebrawood board for one of my future builds, but I cant see Gibson using those woods :)

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And yes it is what you say it is.. paper and glue (of sorts)...

 

Also I was talking in like decades.. We only have so much wood to use.. if we keep using it at the current rate one day it will run out. This is just what I think of course.. Just stuff ive read and heard about over the years.. and it makes sense. We only have so many resources on this planet and are using it all at a very high rate.

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I once spent time viewing satellite photos of land in Malaysia. I looked over a large area as part of the search for flight MH370 which had vanished off the radar and never found. I was stunned to realize that all the forest land I saw was all timbered. All of it. We are talking about an area I saw that was half the size of my state of South Carolina. After a while I stopped searching for pieces of an airplane in the fotos and began looking to see if I could find a standing forest. I couldn't find any forests.

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Ebony is in zero danger of going extinct. Taylor guitars has a video interview on their website explaining Ebony. They own quite a bit of Ebony right now in forests they run in Africa. The problem is finding the select grain Ebony trees that are black. There is an almost unlimited supply of Ebony that has brown grain mixed in. Taylor has debated making fretboards that use multicolored grained Ebony but as of yet I haven't seen a Taylor with anything but all black grain.

Well that video just pretty much confirmed everything I said... (probably one of the places I heard it)

 

All the woods we traditionally use for guitars are either endangered or will become so soon..

 

Just one country in the world now has ebony which means that we used it up everywhere else if that's not endangered then I don't know what is.... While we have stock now.. It wont be that long till its all used...

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Every time I go into a guitar store I walk amongst the acoustic guitars to see if Taylor has made any multicolored Ebony fretboards. I haven't seen any yet. I've wondered if Taylor has actually used this low quality Ebony and stained it black. Probably not.

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Hello!

 

The best alternative fretboard material, is baked maple - in my opinion. It feels exactly as ebony, and when stained (or just simply oiled with linseed extract) it even looks like it.

 

Just put down my L6S, to post this. And honestly, the only reason I would prefer ebony, is sentimental. I can't understand why Gibson gave upon it so quickly. It's locally available to them, it grows like mushrooms...

 

Cheers... Bence

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Hello!

 

The best alternative fretboard material, is baked maple - in my opinion. It feels exactly as ebony, and when stained (or just simply oiled with linseed extract) it even looks like it.

 

Just put down my L6S, to post this. And honestly, the only reason I would prefer ebony, is sentimental. I can't understand why Gibson gave upon it so quickly. It's locally available to them, it grows like mushrooms...

 

Cheers... Bence

Yes I agree.. I had a Firebird with baked maple and thought it was a great replacement, smooth as you like and totally looked the part.. Id happily use that myself.

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So are you asking us or telling us?

 

:)

 

Yes as it says a man made composite so not proper wood... HOWEVER a lot of people on here like them...

 

I tried one ages ago when they first started using them (after the famous government raids) and I had black powder rubbing off on my fingers which put me off them forever.. But the guys that like them on here say that doesn't happen on their boards?

 

The thing is.. One day.. real wood will be at such a premium that we will HAVE to use substitutes.. Ebony will probably be extinct sooner or later (probably sooner) and possibly the other sources too in several years (rosewood and maple).

 

So in that way its a good thing.. But to me nothing is nicer than an ebony or rosewood board.

You may have sweaty fingers rabs, or they may be using oil on their fretboards which myself never do. I bought my goddaughter a guitar once and she kept rusting the strings and i couldnt figure out why when she only played in the house? Then i found coated strings and realized that was exactly what she needed. richlite is ok, doesnt martin use it, or similar in their acoustics? My Taylor is a layered rosewood but what is between the layers? the model of my Taylor is a 214ce deluxe.

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You may have sweaty fingers rabs, or they may be using oil on their fretboards which myself never do. I bought my goddaughter a guitar once and she kept rusting the strings and i couldnt figure out why when she only played in the house? Then i found coated strings and realized that was exactly what she needed. richlite is ok, doesnt martin use it, or similar in their acoustics? My Taylor is a layered rosewood but what is between the layers? the model of my Taylor is a 214ce deluxe.

No, it wasn't like that.. I literally just strummed it a few times and that was it... I also remember hearing reports of the same thing happening to other people at around that time..

 

Donno.. maybe it was just from a bad batch or something?

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Richlite is the best fingerboard material on the market today. They have been used on high end boutique basses for decades. I have three Such fingerboards at the moment including a fretless bass.

 

A better fingerboard money can't buy.

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Richlite is the best fingerboard material on the market today. They have been used on high end boutique basses for decades. I have three Such fingerboards at the moment including a fretless bass.

 

A better fingerboard money can't buy.

 

you'd sort of hope so in a way. I assume wood was always used because wood was used for pretty much everything that had to be light yet stable and reasonably strong for hundreds/thousands of years. Now with the chance to use purpose built synthetic materials the designers and engineers should be able to come up with something exceptional for the purpose.

 

Not saying good or bad, but logical (IMO)

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...Taylor has debated making fretboards that use multicolored grained Ebony but as of yet I haven't seen a Taylor with anything but all black grain.

 

There are many alternative woods to Ebony but Gibson has leaned towards Richlite.

 

I was curious of what players in here thought of Richlite and also curious if players even knew what Richlite really is made of. "Richlite" is a fancy marketing name given to a material that is basically made up of glue and recycled paper.

 

Black Ebony is on the way of the Dodo Bird thanks to the quest for all black fretboards. I've seen several Taylors with multi-color Ebony fretboards and they are beautiful. Taylor is on my wishlist because of so. I also have an ES-355 with Richlite. She looks, feels, plays, and sounds beautiful. Looks just as nice as ebony. No black fingers. Call it paper and glue, call it whatever makes some of you on this board feel superior. To each his own.

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you'd sort of hope so in a way. I assume wood was always used because wood was used for pretty much everything that had to be light yet stable and reasonably strong for hundreds/thousands of years. Now with the chance to use purpose built synthetic materials the designers and engineers should be able to come up with something exceptional for the purpose.

 

Not saying good or bad, but logical (IMO)

 

:) The original purpose for Richlite is countertops

 

http://www.richlite.com/

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Black Ebony is on the way of the Dodo Bird thanks to the quest for all black fretboards. I've seen several Taylors with multi-color Ebony fretboards and they are beautiful. Taylor is on my wishlist because of so. I also have an ES-355 with Richlite. She looks, feels, plays, and sounds beautiful. Looks just as nice as ebony. No black fingers. Call it paper and glue, call it whatever makes some of you on this board feel superior. To each his own.

 

My '99-'57 has never left black on my fingers. It even has nibs [biggrin]

 

I wouldn't have any problem with a Richlite board though. It's the whole guitar that matters to me.

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Guest Farnsbarns

Ebony is in zero danger of going extinct. Taylor guitars has a video interview on their website explaining Ebony. They own quite a bit of Ebony right now in forests they run in Africa. The problem is finding the select grain Ebony trees that are black. There is an almost unlimited supply of Ebony that has brown grain mixed in. Taylor has debated making fretboards that use multicolored grained Ebony but as of yet I haven't seen a Taylor with anything but all black grain.

 

There are many alternative woods to Ebony but Gibson has leaned towards Richlite.

 

I was curious of what players in here thought of Richlite and also curious if players even knew what Richlite really is made of. "Richlite" is a fancy marketing name given to a material that is basically made up of glue and recycled paper.

 

Every time I go into a guitar store I walk amongst the acoustic guitars to see if Taylor has made any multicolored Ebony fretboards. I haven't seen any yet. I've wondered if Taylor has actually used this low quality Ebony and stained it black. Probably not.

 

Taylor, who own all the legal ebony supply chain have categorically said that they will not allow anyone to specify black ebony. If they want to buy ebony it will be in whatever colour comes. They have been making guitars with light and streaky ebony for a long time now.

 

Ebony is a seriously endangered species of wood, largely because you have to cut it down to find out what colour it is and the light wood has traditionally then been disguarded.

 

There is no difference in the quality of light and dark ebony.

 

I know,I know, I've dared to disagree with Zentar again. He's got me on ignore so it will be fine... :unsure:

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Guest Farnsbarns

People keep saying paper and glue or paper and resin as if these are dirty words. Just how far removed from wood is it? Paper is made of cellulose fibres from wood. Trees contain resins and alcahols.

 

Basically richlite is... dare I say it... Wood?

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Guest Farnsbarns

That's a bit of a stretch. I guess you could say that a roll of Charmin is a kind of wood (yet is squeezably soft).

 

Just ask that old pervert, Mr. Whipple.

 

Well, ok, I'll give you that. A bit of a stretch. It's just a reaction to all the "paper and resin? Pah! Not on my watch!" Stuff I see on the webs. It could be aluminium or plastic or something else truly wrong. Richlite has been around a long time and been used by a number of makers and I can't help but think that's because it really feels like wood, it works and it doesn't seem to have any great to negative impact on tone. I'm yet to read up on the result of a refret but it must be happening and there's no visible hoohah.

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